How I Met Your Mother

1st - 3rd season - 100% - No matter what happened in my life, there was always one group of friends who got me and everything seemed so much better. They were Friends and their decade-long journey with the viewers left a huge void in the hearts of those who like to find comfort in fictional friends. And that void disappeared after watching the second episode of HIMYM. It takes a while for the characters to get under your skin. Just like I used to want to visit Central Perk, now I feel a huge part of Ted in me, I want to hang out at McLaren's with Barney and make the craziest ideas come true, envy the amazing couple Marshmallow+Lillypad, and admire Robin as an unreachable beauty. 4th - 6th season - 80% - It's as if the creators forgot how to dose the jokes and plot revelations. Everything seems to be in its place, genius episodes are given more sparingly, but never disappoint (Shelter Island, Girls vs. Suits), but sometimes it's clear that with high ratings, there's no need to rush, so the scripts just goof around, which doesn't work well during weaker moments. Fortunately, Neil Patrick Harris still reigns supreme, while Alyson Hannigan has lost some of her best comedic timing after her maternity leave. 7th - 8th season - 75% - I would like to forgive the slow unveiling of an important detail throughout the season, because the best things are worth waiting for. But with the given qualitative jumps, my condescending smile turns quite bitter. The episodes that focus on old-fashioned situational humor increasingly resemble a struggle, and when your once heartfelt series offers episodes in which, despite the creators' obvious efforts, I have nothing to smile about, it's actually somewhat heartbreaking. The relatively high rating is saved by Bayes and Thomas' emotional touch. Serious storylines or contemplation still work like a charm, and the sitcom label suddenly becomes too small for the entire HIMYM. 9th season - 85% - Initially, a completely dysfunctional concept, deadly boring Marshall storyline, and trivial running jokes - and then a complete turnaround halfway through. When long-running storylines start to come to a close, nostalgia flourishes and every other scene contains confession or wisdom, my eyes get teary and I'm back six years ago, when I couldn't breathe from the tension of Ted's romantic escapades (especially in episodes like How Your Mother Met Me, Daisy, and Gary Blauman). The atmosphere clearly indicates that something big is ending, drowning out occasional visits from weaker jokes, and only makes you root for the beloved characters in anticipation of the long-awaited and dramatized happy ending. Last Forever episode - Unrateable. But unfortunately, not in the way that the endings of my other beloved series stunned me. I understand the main creative duo's desire to make their work a more realistic spectacle and I also understand their "thinning out" of happy endings. But ending a sitcom on a serious note is no fun, and diluting everything that the last two seasons or in some cases all nine seasons were building up to is a stab in the back for all the viewers who root for happy endings. I could have dealt with that sad twist with a shocked expression on my face, but the biggest betrayal for me is the complete finale that erases everything the creators have been trying to show us about their relationship in recent years. This is not a punchline, it's simply deliberate disappointment. Even two months after the premiere, and with several subsequent reruns, I can say this with a calm mind. My once favorite show is now leaving behind disappointment. It's not a definite ending for everyone, nor a boring finish to a certainty. But this turmoil hurts broken fan hearts. Lowering the rating by one star has never been so regretful. (10/10/2007) (less) (more)